It's the final evening for the final night of college football before all the bowls. Naturally we couldn't resist one last chat.

It's time for the latest in the "Game of the Year" games. The BCS is not something I like. I'm not even going to start that debate. What I will say is that it does have the feel of semi-final games, with the SEC Championship and Big 12 Championship games.

There are and were a few other games of note. The Conference-USA and ACC had their championship games. There are the 1-AA playoffs. The Pac-10 and Big East even had a few season-ending games just for fun.

So join us around 6 pm EST for plenty to discuss.

Alabama versus Florida was billed as a monster matchup for the 2008 SEC Championship, and with good reason -- there were tons of stars on offense, two brilliant head coaches in Urban Meyer and Nick Saban and a likely spot for the national championship on the line.

It was also supposed to be a dramatic slugfest for the rights to best team in the SEC, and by default, arguably the best team in the country. Even with Percy Harvin out for the game, Tim Tebow and a stout defensive effort were enough to allow Florida to pull away from the Crimson Tide and become SEC Champions.

That's not to say that it wasn't a great game; it was. Julio Jones was outstanding for the Tide, catching everything that got near him from John Parker Wilson (who really should cameo/star in a Corey Feldman and/or Corey Haim movie at some point simply based on his name) and finishing with 125 yards on just five catches. Glen Coffee and the Alabama rushing game were strong and the highlight of the offense for 'Bama.

And on the Gator side, it was obviously Tebow -- it always is. He went 14 of 22 for 216 yards and three touches and led the team in rushing. And even though the numbers weren't insanely eye-popping, if you watched this game, you know darn well that Tebow made about five or six absolutely huge throws when Florida needed a big first down.

I have to believe Ole Miss fans knew this was coming. Houston Nutt's name turns up in the coaching carousel, Nutt gets an extension, Nutt claims (with a wink and a nod) that he never had any interest in the job for which his name was floated. If they didn't, then they weren't paying attention to Nutt's tenure at Arkansas. So it continues in Oxford.

Both denied they had any contact with Auburn. Nutt said he had no knowledge that his agent, Jimmy Sexton, had any contact with Auburn, either. Sexton did not return repeated calls.

"All those things were rumors," said Nutt, who came to Ole Miss after resigning as coach at Arkansas. "Not to say it wasn't going to happen."

Added Nutt: "I'm never going to try and gouge a program or try to benefit myself with leverage. I'm not built that way. Not made that way."

No. Not at all. Even as Nutt says repeatedly it's "business" -- which it is -- it is also clearly leverage and to the benefit of Nutt. He gets a raise from $1.8 million to $2.5 million which through 2012 (four years is the maximum contract length allowed for a state employee to receive in Mississippi).

Nutt and his representation have every right and, given the nature of the coaching carousel, should take advantage of interest when they can. At the same time, Nutt has such a history of getting his name floated for a job and then getting another raise from his present employer. That approach eventually generates a backlash in the fanbase, as they see the money being paid increase while the returns level off.

Mike Leach has been named the Big 12 Coach of the Year (I, for one, am going to take a stand and pretend that Bob Stoops didn't also win the award with Leach) following a hugely successful season for the Red Raiders.

They were one embarrassing blowout loss to the Sooners away from having a shot to compete for a national championship and that says a lot about what the Pirate Cap'n has done.

And, as such, there are many other teams interested in attempting to purchase his coaching services. Texas Tech would like to see Leach hang around though, so they've offered him a nice little bit of booty. As in five years and $12 million.

[Texas Tech chancellor Kent] Hance said there is "a little bump" in salary in the remaining two years of the existing contract that will pay Leach $2.7 million in 2009.

Under the extension, Leach would receive $7 million over the final three years through 2013. "I'll tell you one thing, $2.7 million goes a long way in Lubbock, Texas," Hance said.

And I'll tell you one thing too -- that's a totally ridiculous and insipid attitude to have on the part of Hance. Just because a couple mil is a lot of money relative to geographic location doesn't mean you should downplay the willingness of your school to pay your suddenly studly coach a lot more money.

All that being said, if I'm Leach, I'm probably holding off on inking that deal and letting my ability to coach up defense shine a little bit more, and let the interest from other schools build before I sit down to sign anything.

We'll call today's ACC championship a "Virginia Tech Special." The Hokies had just 222 total yards. Quarterback Tyrod Taylor completed 11 passes for a mere 84 yards, with no touchdowns an an interception. And yet, the Hokies rolled up 30 points in an easy 30-12 win over Boston College, using the tried-and-true Virginia Tech strategy - play good defense, win the field position game and pound the ball on the ground.

The only thing keeping this from a complete Frank Beamer-led performance is that the Hokies failed to block a punt.

No matter, though, as Virginia Tech repeated its 30-16 ACC Championship Game win over BC from last year. As a result, the Hokies head back to the BCS - a guaranteed spot in the Orange Bowl awaits. The Eagles will wind up somewhere in the postseason as well, probably at either the Chick-fil-A, Champs Sports or Gator Bowl.

I tell you what -- "East Carolina is your conference champion" is not a phrase I really planned on hearing (or wanted to hear, for that matter) in 2008. However, after the Purple Pirates defeated Tulsa, 27-24, on a late field goal to win the Conference-USA championship and a Liberty Bowl berth, it's just a phrase everyone is going to have to get used to hearing.

The Pirates, though, without delving into some ridiculous coming-of-age type of storyline, are once again fun to root for; the first few weeks of this season, the Pirates were America's sweetheart, rising up in the polls as they continued to upset bigger name teams.

And people whispered those magic "BCS" letters, because the Pirates, could have, conceivably, run the table in their Conference and landed in a big January bowl. They didn't make it all the way to the top, but a resurgent second half of the season has them headed towards the Liberty Bowl now (as I predicted elsewhere).

Oh yeah -- the game itself was interesting too.

For three seasons, Appalachian State has controlled the FCS (formerly I-AA), winning three straight national titles and, of course, pulling off the spectacular upset of Michigan. But the Mountaineers reign as FCS kings ended on Saturday, as Richmond headed into Boone, N.C. and notched a stunning rout, 33-13, in the playoff quarterfinals.

The biggest culprit in today's Mountaineers' loss was quarterback Armanti Edwards -- App. State's hero in that Big House win. The Spiders picked Edwards off five times in the game, using two of those picks to extend a 9-7 lead to an insurmountable 23-7 cushion.

Richmond also rolled up 238 rushing yards, with Josh Vaughan scoring three times and grabbing 132 on the ground.

Promise me this: Once in your life, please try to make it to a football game at one of our service academies. I can't promise you a great game, but I can promise a great experience. Yes, even if Army football is involved.

Army-Navy is one of the sport's oldest rivalries. It hasn't been much of a rivalry lately, though. Navy has had Army's number, winning nine of the last 10 games, including today's contest, which Navy won 34-0. The Black Knights of the Hudson have really hit the skids. The last time they won more than four games in a season was in 1996, when they went 10-2.

Navy dominated today's game, which was basically over after Navy's first possession. The Midshipmen controlled the line-play on both sides of the ball. Paul Johnson may have taken his system to Georgia Tech, but he left behind his top assistant, Ken Niumatalolo, who hasn't missed a beat. Navy's triple-option offense still works beautifully, with both Shun White and Eric Kettani going for well over 100 yards of rushing. The real story is the dominance of Navy's defense, which held Army to seven first downs and 150 yards.

Okay, that's not the real story.

Leading up to today's big SEC championship game, most of the talk outside of Alabama was on Tim Tebow and that incredible Florida offensive attack. Well, the squad will be without their personal Reggie Bush today, as Percy Harvin is listed as doubtful, with head coach Urban Meyer chiming in with news that Harvin is "probably not going to play."

That report came after ESPN's (look at all the Bristol love!) Kirk Herbstreit announced this morning that Harvin would most likely be out for today's game.

What does this mean for Florida?

As the coaching carousel keeps turning, the newly-available Ty Willingham might be expected to be bitter. After all, his record at Notre Dame was essentially the same as Charlie Weis' after three seasons. Yet Willingham got the gate from the Domers, while Weis got the dreaded vote of confidence from his athletic director this week. You wouldn't blame Willingham if all of a sudden he started talking like Yosemite Sam with a habanero seed stuck in his throat. Gibbering, barely coherent anger would seem to be an appropriate response to such a regrettable circumstance.

Whatever you may think of Willingham as a coach, he said the right thing about Weis, and about coaches in general.

"It's not just my issue, it's a college football issue - we have to give coaches a chance to do their job," Willingham said Thursday from Seattle, where he recently was fired as the University of Washington's coach after four seasons, the last of them winless.

"Because now we have coaches ... especially some of the minority coaches ... they are losing their jobs after 2 1/2 years. That's not right."

Indeed, it's not right, as I said earlier this year. The situation hasn't gotten better. Who's to blame?